


Still Fishing

by Holygreensaints (Vortaesthetic)



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Byleth/seteth, Gen, Green Boy gets the Dad Talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25126579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vortaesthetic/pseuds/Holygreensaints
Summary: Jeralt's got something to ask of Seteth.(Seteth Week day 1: fishing/storytelling)
Relationships: Jeralt Reus Eisner & Seteth, My Unit | Byleth/Seteth
Comments: 6
Kudos: 94
Collections: Seteth Week Fics





	Still Fishing

**Still Fishing**

Seteth made a habit of getting down to the fishing pond pier on Friday evenings. He found fishing calming, despite his lack of talent for baiting hooks. Calm was sorely needed in his life right about now, considering the continuing headaches from dealing with the still-ongoing collapse of the Western Church and the constant paperwork deluge that he never reached the end of. Not to mention the parade of characters in-between that kept everything off balance despite his best efforts. Death Knights and Flame Emperors and Dark Mage Librarians, oh my.

Oftentimes, he was joined at the pier by Flayn. Her enthusiasm and excitement did somewhat spoil the calm, but he loved to see his precious daughter smile. She was not here today, nor was his second most prominent fishing partner, Professor Byleth.

Well…she was rather more than a mere fishing partner or coworker now, wasn't she? They had recently begun seeing one another on a personal basis. Quietly dating, he preferred to call it. She was calm and even-keeled, dependable and loyal... beautiful. Astonishingly powerful. She was marked by destiny, he could feel it-- it made it impossible for him to look away from her. She had a gravity that pulled him in.

And for some reason she was interested in him, too. Who would have guessed?

What he hadn't expected was to suddenly be tracked down by the father of said Professor, Jeralt Eisner. Jeralt sat down right next to him on the pier and whipped out a fishing rod and tackle of his own.

He got on well enough with Jeralt in their professional capacities, but they could hardly be called friends. They had little else in common but Byleth and the Church.

…which meant that the line he'd just cast out into the water was little more than pretense for something other than a social call. _Lovely._

"Seteth," Jeralt greeted simply with a nod. Seteth acknowledged him in kind.

They sat in silence for awhile, Jeralt watching his line and Seteth stewing in anticipation for the admonishment he was sure was coming.

"I hear that you and Byleth are getting along better lately. She certainly seems to think so, at least."

"Yes, I suppose we have. Despite our-- _well, my_ rough start, we've come to understand each other."

Jeralt snorted. "Considering how much grief she gave me whenever she was got the third-degree from you, I've gotta say that's a relief."

Seteth's line sits unmoving in the water. Would that his nerves could do the same. He's certain Jeralt came for a reason, and it wasn't to fish.

"Course, I can't say that I ever expected to hear about you two being involved. That feels like it came out of nowhere."

_Ah. There it is! At last, the admonishment arrives._

"I won't deny it," Seteth replied cautiously. "Though I thought it best for her sake and mine not to advertise it. Byleth is very important to me, Jeralt."

The conversation paused for a while as Jeralt suddenly sprung into action, reeling in a little whitefish that he scoffed at and released.

"I'm not here to intimidate you. Or to castigate you. Maybe I would if you were a lesser man, but if you were, I doubt we'd even be having this discussion in the first place," groused Jeralt, scratching thoughtfully at his beard. "I guess that it just occurred to me that I don't know much about you. If Byleth's serious about a guy, I want to know about him."

Seteth shot him an odd look.

"Jeralt, we see each other at every church liaison meeting."

"That isn't the same and you know it. Of course I already know what you do for a living. You push papers for Rhea. But who are you? How did you get here? What do you want? Without knowing those kinds of things, I can't get a read on you, and if I can't do that, then I'm not sure how I feel about you being with my daughter."

_Those… are fair enough questions, I suppose._

"I'm not anybody, Jeralt."

Jeralt scoffed. "Come on. You honestly don't expect me to believe that, do you? Nobody just stumbles into the second in command position of the Church of Seiros out of happenstance."

Seteth sighed. He had long since crafted a fictional life story to satisfy the curious. It was a nondescript, short, and rather boring tale--precisely by design. Details invited questions and risk. But as comfortable as he had grown in the telling of it, the more he resented having to have a fictional biography in the first place. To be asked to describe himself and only be able to offer lies, just as he was about to do now.

"I grew up a commoner in Enbarr in a family with strong religious traditions," he said. "My parents perished from illness and I gained guardianship of my young sister soon after she was born. I served as a priest in Enbarr, where I met my wife. We moved to Arianrhód, and I served there for a time before I lost my wife. The Archbishop sent for me not long after, I came to assist, and I have been here ever since."

Jeralt chuckled at that.

"Only you would spend entire days picking apart other people's stories and describe your own life story in five sentences," he said.

 _Well, lies are easier to maintain when they are short,_ Seteth reasoned.

"I see no point in stretching out a boring story, Jeralt," he said instead.

Jeralt had another potential catch on his hands. He reeled in his line again, the weight on the end of the pole suggesting a larger fish fighting on the line. He reeled it in, but at the very last second, the hook slipped and the fish escaped.

Jeralt shook his head and laughed anyway. Seteth kept watch over his own unbaited line, unsurprised that it didn't stir. Little perch hovered beneath his feet in the cool water, small and plain but calming in their serenity.

"You see, that's just what I don't get about you, Seteth," he said. "I should like you. You know what you're doing, you're committed, and you follow through. One of those true-to-your-word types. And I don't dislike you. It just bothers me that you're just as cagey about secrets as the Archbishop is."

Seteth grimaced. He wasn't unaware of Jeralt's troubled past with Rhea, nor his current distrust. He himself has been having issues trusting Rhea's decisions of late. Perhaps he ought to clarify the nature of his relationship with Rhea, lest Jeralt project his discontent onto him as well.

"Rhea and I are old friends. We were brought together in life through a series of unfortunate personal circumstances, all of which are deeply private and best left buried in the past. Suffice it to say that she's earned my loyalty. She is one of few in this world that I can freely trust. Even so, I am my own man and my will is my own. I am no puppet."

"Any man willing to argue with Rhea in broad daylight is a brave man. Are you willing to give Byleth your trust like that?"

_Absolutely._

"Yes. The day she brought Flayn back to me…"

He paused, to take in a breath. To rein in the hot prickle he felt gathering in his eyes. The memory of that terrible day was still fresh and painful and there were still times he gave into the tears. It had been validating proof that nowhere was safe and he could do little about it but fret.

"The day she brought Flayn back was proof of her measure." he concluded. He was cautious not to look at Jeralt, lest the Blade Breaker spot the misty eyes. "Her courage and her compassion in that moment meant everything to me. It still does."

"Fatherhood is like that," Jeralt said quietly, a pensive look on his face. "Your kid is your whole world. To imagine them being hurt is devastating. No matter how powerful you are, the world's a terrifying place when you realize that you can't protect them from everything."

Seteth nodded solemnly before he realized the connotation of what Jeralt had said. The captain shook his head knowingly.

"No, Byleth didn't tell me. I knew it when I saw your face the day Flayn went missing. Your face… I was certain that had bad news come you would have died on the spot. Crumbled to dust. That was the face of a father, terrified that the daughter he loved might not come home. I get the sense that she means everything to you."

Silence reigned for a while as the sun dipped further in the sky. The occasional lanternbug blinked lazily as it drifted over the water and the wind sighed quietly through the reeds. Despite the idyllic scenery of the evening, Seteth's anxiety whirrs at a fever pitch.

"That's how I know that you can appreciate my fear for my own daughter," Jeralt said, his tone laced with old regret. "Her whole life has been shadowed by lies. So much has happened to her over the years, so much that she isn't even aware of. I'm just as complicit in that as anybody else in that, sadly. Lies by omission are still lies. I guess I just want some truth for her. She deserves truth. I just want to know that no matter what happens, someone will be there for her. That she will always have someone in her corner, no matter what."

Jeralt stood and put his fishing rod in the barrel at dockside and stood to stretch. Seteth could hear his back pop and his bones creak, could see the wistful shadow of sorrow pass over his face.

_Just how many years had Jeralt Eisner seen?_

"Seteth," He said as he turned to lake his leave. "If you really do love her… stand by her. As a friend or a lover, I don't care… if you've _ever_ loved her, stand by her. Have her best interest at heart, especially when no one else does. If you can promise me that, then maybe I can be okay with this."

"I promise," Seteth said without reservation. "No matter what comes to pass.. she will always have me."

Jeralt grinned and shook his head.

"Guess that's all a father could ask for, isn't it?"

Seteth sat alone at the dock long after Jeralt's departure. The crickets and frogs are chattering in the evening dark, but Seteth's mind is far and away, considering a future pledged only to Byleth and Flayn alone.

He wonders what the future holds in store for all of them and shivers. He would hold on to them, as hard as he could, no matter what.


End file.
